prevention. Civilians always want prevention. They’d complain
about Orwellian thought-crime crackdowns, but most of ’em would vote for just
that kind of intervention if given half a chance. Administrations always want
containment, trying to staunch the bleeding of bad press, especially with the
constantly hungry media. Especially when scared customers don’t show up to
spend. The tribe would be anxious to either resolve this or downplay it any way
they could.
“Listen,”
Lupo added, as his mind reprocessed what he and Jessie had discussed, “can you
also make a couple calls and see if you can get the same kind of list from up
in Watersmeet?”
Charlie was
silent for a moment. “You think he might have applied up there too?”
“Well, it’s
a possibility that he’s after revenge on casinos in general, so maybe in his
head one casino could stand in for all of them. Come to think of it, we should
try to get the same list from all local casinos.”
Lupo thought
the guy could pull up stakes and head for one of the other Indian casinos in
the state. He mentioned that possibility, hoping it would bait Charlie into
digging harder for this data.
“Huh,”
Charlie said.
Chewing it over , Lupo
thought. He liked the quality. Too often security guys wore blinders when
other, outside people pointed out
things. Cops, too, in his experience.
He pressed
Charlie: “You have connections with other security heads? You guys coordinate
at all?”
“Some, but
not at this level. We… tend to share info on known cheats and other banned
patrons, we do some cross-training, some team-building exercises, and we do
trade personnel when they want to transfer…”
“Even tribe
to tribe?” Lupo asked.
“Sure, far
as I know it’s common. The training works from place to place, so we’d be
stupid not to take pre-trained employees when they can be vouched for.”
“Would you
guys trade info on bad employees who got fired and the like, too?”
“In some
cases, sure. More with bad customers, but occasionally employees we think are
going to try their luck at another tribe’s joint.”
“See, that
could feed into this guy’s persecution complex,” Lupo mused. “You know: ‘The
system’s stacked against me. One place rejected me, now they all will. I hate
the one – I hate them all.’ I can see it as a motive. Maybe not practical
or logical, but who knows how this guy’s gears mesh?”
“Yeah, I get
your point,” Charlie admitted.
“All right,
see if you can find out if your HR – and any of the others you talk to
– hang on to the applications of rejects. Get lists. Should be easier for
you to request this stuff than if I do.”
Charlie
chuckled. “They’d make you get a
court order.”
“Which would
take too long. We’d have a third, maybe a fourth victim by then. This guy’s
escalating. I just have a feeling this is a spree, not a one-two deal. I really
think he’s enjoying himself and he’s only gonna stop when we put a bullet in
him. I’d rather stop him in the act, fuck the research, but our chances of that
are about nada . Unless we get very
fucking lucky. Do you gamble yourself?”
“Nah, I like
to keep my money. Buy things that make me and my family happy. Watching wheels
spin and numbers flash is for suckers.” He chuckled.
“Not what
your bosses would like to hear, I bet.”
Charlie
laughed too. “No, probably not. So what do you think’s gonna happen next? More
vics?”
“Right now
I’ll bet he likes his new name. Like a comic book supervillain. Thanks to those
idiots on TV. He’s rolling it around in his mind, getting comfortable with it.
Then he’s gonna do what he can to make it splash all over again.”
“So we don’t
have much time.”
Lupo sighed.
“No, I don’t think we do.”
But I’d like to be wrong , he thought.
JESSIE
She barely
remembered entering the mothership. It was like having been kidnapped, sucked
up on a tractor beam like those old